Our Tutors

All our tutors are published authors who have PhDs from top schools with 10+ years helping students with their college essays.

We created Real College Essays after reading all the college essay advice out there, and finding that most college consultants were telling students the opposite of what they needed to know. 

We’d taught at UC Berkeley for many years, and we couldn’t believe what we were reading — until we looked at the qualifications of the people giving this advice. Most college counselors had no background in writing; most college essay coaches only had regular college degrees. 

To make matters worse, the vast majority of these professional consultants didn’t even review their students’ essays themselves; instead, they paid college students and college grads low rates to do this. 

We were trained as academics, and we wanted to continue working one-on-one with students, just as we had at UC Berkeley. That’s why we created Real College Essays, where consultants with PhDs guide college applicants through the challenging but rewarding essay-writing process.

  • Ben Urwand

    Ben founded Real College Essays after helping students with their writing for over 15 years. He taught for nearly a decade at UC Berkeley, and since then has been determined to help students write compelling admissions essays. He is the author of The Collaboration (Harvard University Press), which was widely discussed in international media, and he has written for publications such as Time, Harper’s, and The Hollywood Reporter. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley, his MA from the University of Chicago, and he was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows.

  • Sarah Stoller

    Sarah is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience coaching students in college admissions essay writing. She has taught writing both one-on-one and in the classroom setting to students at the high school and college levels. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Washington Post, Salon, Slate, and Jezebel, among others. She is also the author of Inventing the Working Parent (MIT Press). She received a PhD from UC Berkeley, an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge, and a BA from UC Berkeley.

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